Chapter 288: The Show
The night slipped by. Arwin remembered little of it. He was so tired that he collapsed into bed the moment he reached it and didn’t move more than a breath again until Lillia shook him awake well into the morning.
They headed into the common room. The Devil’s Den was surprisingly unchanged from how it had looked before. Even though it had bonded with a Dungeon Heart, Arwin couldn’t see any obvious changes in it. That was probably a good thing — anything suspicious might have put Twelve on the defensive when he arrived.
The other members of the Menagerie trickled into the room as the morning wore on. A heavy stillness hung in the air as everyone gathered, laden with trepidation.
It took Lillia over an hour to prepare everyone breakfast, but it only took minutes for everyone to stuff it down. Rodrick ran over the plan with everyone once more, making sure every single one of them knew their part. Beyond that, none of them spoke much during the meal — their minds were completely focused on what was to come.
There were a lot of things that had to go right for this to work properly. They all knew that, and they all knew what was at stake.
Not a single one of them would have had it any other way.
Their minds were set.
Arwin couldn’t help but notice that, as soon as he finished eating, the tension tightening his insides seemed to relax as if someone had given his soul a massage. His thoughts became clearer and the stiffness from the night evaporated.
The other members of the menagerie underwent similar changes. The slight look of satisfaction that broke through the determination in Lillia’s expression told him what the cause was. It seemed she’d been getting much better at improving the magical effects her food could convey.